Athlone Town fined by FAI for Waterford no show

Airtricity League First Division club Athlone Town have been fined €1000 by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) for failing to fulfil their fixture against Waterford United last week.

An additional €4000 fine has been suspended, but will come in effect should Athlone fail in their obligation to play another competitive fixture this month.

Their only remaining scheduled June game is at home to Cobh Ramblers on June 24.

Waterford have been awarded a 3-0 win last week’s game, and will also be compensated for the loss of gate revenue after the FAI opted to switch the venue for the next meeting between the two sides.

The next fixture between the two sides on Friday, August 5 was set to be played in Athlone, but will now be played at Waterford’s Regional Sports Centre and Waterford will retain all gate receipts from this fixture.

– FAI statement

The decision of the club’s players to not travel to Waterford last Friday came about due to a lack of payment of wages, which is believed to stretch as far back as last season.

League Director Fran Gavin ordered an independent review into the matter earlier this week.

We take this matter extremely seriously and will be charging Athlone for failing to fulfil the fixture and for bringing the game into disrepute.

This is totally unacceptable. To be notified on the afternoon of an SSE Airtricity League fixture that a club cannot field a team is simply not good enough.

– Fran Gavin

Athlone Town are the oldest club in either tier of the Aitricity League having been founded in 1887.